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Story: Women’s movement

‘Not the church and not the state! Women must decide our fate!’ In the 1970s the women’s liberation movement surged onto the streets, demanding better representation in Parliament, equality in the workplace and education, contraception and abortion rights, and an end to violence against women. It was a fitting follow-up to 19th-century feminism, which won the vote for women in 1893 – making New Zealand the first country in the world to give women the vote in national elections.